The Extended Enterprise: A New Era for Information Analysis and Delivery
Capitalizing on Out-of-Enterprise Relationships to Boost Productivity and Improve ROI
Driven by the common business need to cut costs, increase profitability and enhance relationships with customers, innovative organizations are deploying a new generation of business systems that extend information analysis and delivery capabilities outside the firewall. These out-of-enterprise solutions give companies
a new way to serve customers, interact with business partners and deliver information to all types of users – in some cases creating entirely new lines of business.
�The goal is not just to Web-enable the same old applications, but to use the Internet to create a whole new type of information system,– says Gerald D. Cohen, president of Information Builders. �Because the Web is universally deployed, companies can extend business applications to partners and customers without
adding additional infrastructure.–
Up until about 1996, very few organizations shared information outside their firewalls. The Internet laid the groundwork for extra-enterprise collaboration by standardizing protocols and increasing the speed of communication. Today, Web-based information systems can be used to share information with everyone from
sales agents and shipping correspondents to city planners and bank customers, enabling organizations to easily communicate both internally and externally.
�We�re at the cusp of the real information age, an era in which dynamic information flows in real-time to customers, partners and employees,– says Gary Beach, group publisher of CIO magazine. �In the future, companies will use the by-product of technology, namely information, as their most important competitive
weapon.–
Consider the huge changes taking place on the data warehouse front, as innovative companies begin bundling decision support systems that can be extended to other companies over the Web. Perhaps the best example is Merchant Direct, a WebFOCUS application that allows merchants to view debit, Visa and MasterCard
transaction data online. Created by Moneris with help from Information Builders Consulting, Merchant Direct lets customers generate consolidated reports and obtain customized views of card payment activity. (See related story in this issue.)
�Until now, if a hundred thousand merchants wanted to manage their credit card transaction data, they would have to build a hundred thousand data warehouses,– Cohen suggests. �Moneris is in a position to build one data warehouse and deploy it simultaneously to thousands of corporate customers via the Web.–
Astute organizations have used extranets, exchanges and online marketplaces to enable extra-enterprise communication for some time. But business intelligence was not generally a part of the equation. Now, with technologies such as WebFOCUS, instead of simply sharing or pushing information out to partners and
suppliers, companies are able to create self-service applications that give outside users a customized view of relevant information. �New applications for real-time information delivery let users analyze and interact with information in an independent fashion,– Cohen says.
For example, Merchant Direct makes it easy for merchants to access information about cash flow and consolidated statements, giving them the tools they need to reduce error rates and improve customer service. They can drill down into the Moneris database to analyze point-of-sale expenses, or itemize expenditures by
category.
�The Web is enabling commercial decision support systems on a scale we�ve never seen before,– Cohen says. �We�re starting to see hundreds of thousands of users querying databases instead of hundreds, and we�re witnessing a transition from data warehousing as a cost center to data warehousing as a
revenue force.–
Real-Time Access
Extending business intelligence outside of the enterprise doesn�t simply mean pushing information in a passive way. Many users – business partners, in particular – want to be able to independently interact with the information, to obtain it on their terms, when and where they need it.
�Companies that have moved to this real-time extended enterprise information delivery architecture are going to win more business and earn more profits than competitors who remain tethered to static, not-real-time enterprises,– Beach predicts.
Of course, while data warehouses imply built in latency – offering insight into what happened yesterday or last week – some managers and executives want to be able to monitor the business in real time or near-real time.
�Customers appreciate being able to get at information 24/7,– says Joe Namie at FedEx. �They feel plugged in to the process. You can�t put a value on that type of satisfaction; it is extremely significant to an organization.–
Namie speaks from experience. FedEx developed a business intelligence database to share operational and financial information with partner shipping agents in 150 countries. �Over the last several years we�ve been concentrating our business intelligence within the walls of the enterprise to a relatively small number
of people,– says Namie, a project manager at the Memphis, Tenn.-based shipping firm.
�Now we�re talking about pushing business intelligence to everyone in the enterprise who needs it to make better decisions, and then extending it to customers, suppliers and partners.– (See the Spring/Summer 2002 issue of Information Builders Magazine for the complete
story.)
Thanks to this directive, spearheaded by Namie, FedEx partners can submit queries and access dozens of reports to analyze their delivery performance, and they can link into a payment processing system called AutoPay to calculate balances and pay outstanding invoices. �AutoPay has reduced a complex 90-day process to
a matter of three or four days,– adds Namie. �This dramatically improves the efficiency of our international operations.–
Why share information in this way? For one thing, it gives organizations a competitive advantage. Secondly, it enables new capabilities. Once customers and partners start to regularly visit a Web site, the sponsoring company can build one-to-one relationships with them.
For example, Ford Motor Company created a self-service application to help auto dealers, warranty specialists and warranty consultants quickly identify and resolve problems with warranty repair service and claims. Developers at the automotive giant used WebFOCUS to replace a difficult-toread printed report with a
dynamic,Web-based application that uses graphics to instantly identify anomalies and isolate problems. The self-service reporting application not only gives dealers a snapshot of their warranty performance, but also includes powerful tools for examining their businesses.
�We needed something that could talk to disparate data sources,– says Jim Lollar, North American Warranty Systems design manager for Ford Motor Co. �We wanted graphs that users could drill-down into so dealers wouldn�t have to back up to previous pages on the Web. This system really puts us on the cutting edge.–
(View the Fall 1999 issue of Information Builders Magazine for the complete story about Ford.)
New Horizons for Analysis
Above and beyond merely sharing or delivering information, WebFOCUS opens new realms of analysis to external users. For example, Ford dealers can click on hot spots within a graph to determine the average cost of repairs or the number of repairs per thousand vehicles. They can also generate charts showing repairs by
components, such as engines, transmissions, suspensions or electronic systems. If a dealer�s warranty record exceeds acceptable variances, one or more elements of a graphical presentation will show up as yellow or red.
This signals a new trend in information analysis. Business intelligence tools were initially used by analysts and other power users who are trained to use multi-dimensional databases, online analytical processing (OLAP) tools, and other specialized software. The new breed of business intelligence applications enable
casual business users to access and analyze information using familiar tools. To Cohen, this logic makes perfect sense. �Most organizations have made tremendous investments in e-mail, spreadsheets, search engines, Web browsers, and other common productivity tools,– he points out. �Rather than forcing them to learn a
proprietary decision support environment, why not let them retrieve and analyze information using tools that are already ingrained in the business process?–
Hesse-Noord Natie, a major terminal operator in the Port of Antwerp, Belgium, is extending information and analysis capabilities to the people and organizations that specialize in the loading and unloading of ships. Managers simply consult a Web browser on any device to learn the status of thousands of tons of cargo
coming and going into this bustling European harbor, helping them more effectively coordinate workers, allocate labor, and minimize docking charges. �Having the best logistics, planning techniques, and equipment is what gives us a competitive edge,– says Paul Verbraeken, manager of Informatics at Hesse-Noord Natie.
�We needed reporting software that could give us complete and accurate management information in a form that is readily accessible. That�s why we use WebFOCUS.–
For Verbraeken and his team,WebFOCUS is the engine that creates more than 300 reports revealing each and every facet of port operations. Managers use the menu-driven reporting application not only to view canned reports, but also to submit real-time queries to interact with live data. This helps terminal operators
make split-second decisions that optimize the loading and unloading of cargo.
Leveraging Existing Investments
As Gary Beach confirms in his discussions with dozens of CIOs, budget-conscious executives are eager to utilize the tremendous investments they have made in IT over the last decade.Why not deliver information to users in a form they can instantly apprehend with familiar tools and utilities? This directive becomes
even more important once an online application is extended to an external audience. �You can�t expect an outside user to install and learn special software just to get information off your site,– Beach suggests.
Cohen expands on this principle. �If I�m a financial analyst, I want to see information in a spreadsheet, perhaps an Excel pivot table. I don�t want to have to install a plug-in or use a custom report viewer. It should come to me in a common format like HTML, Adobe Acrobat, or Excel.–
This same line of thinking applies to the devices that users prefer, whether it�s laptop computers, mainframe terminals,or personal digital assistants (PDAs).�Information personal digital assistants (PDAs).�Information should be delivered to the point of business – to the places where decisions are made – whether
that�s on a local network or via a wireless device,– continues Cohen. �An extended information-delivery architecture should use the paradigms companies already have in place so there�s no learning curve, no technology barrier, and information flows right into their existing business processes.–
In the public sector, the New York City Department of Health worked with Information Builders to set a new standard for information-sharing. DOH�s IT pros use WebFOCUS to share restaurant health inspection information with citizens via the Internet. �Information Builders Consulting played a crucial role in helping
us to develop this system,– says Edward Carubis, assistant commissioner for Management Information Services at the DOH. �Their hands-on involvement and ability to solve problems and offer alternative solutions greatly accelerated the development process.–
The City went on to create a public information system that coordinates information from hospitals, emergency workers and disease control centers to proactively monitor outbreaks of diseases that could lead to a potential epidemic. The system uses data-integration technology from iWay Software to combine the data,
and WebFOCUS software to structure and present the information. Best of all, users don�t need to bother with any special tools to find relevant information; they simply check their e-mail or log into the Web to find pertinent information.
At face value, such applications may appear simple. But there is often complex integration technology working behind the scenes. IT professionals at Bombardier Capital are well acquainted with these integration challenges, which is why they turned to iWay Software for help keeping a complex SAP R/3 software
implementation on schedule. �As we depend more and more on SAP R/3 applications, iWay Software�s Data Migrator technology becomes increasingly important to our business,– says Rick Mitchell, CIO at Bombardier Capital.
Like the New York Department of Health, Bombardier Capital needed to develop interfaces among several legacy systems to put information in a common format for reporting. Bombardier Capital�s Rail Car, Manufactured Housing Lending, Inventory Finance, and Aircraft Services Divisions each have their own legacy
accounting systems. Computer platforms include Microsoft Windows NT, IBM AIX, IBM MVS, IBM AS/400, and IBM DOS/VSE. Databases include Microsoft SQL Server, IBM DB2 Universal Database, IBM DB400, Unidata, CA-IDMS, FoxPro, and Pervasive SQL 2000.
Mitchell and his team are using iWay technology to extract, transform and load data from all of these systems into the SAP General Ledger so users can produce financial statements more quickly. Bombardier purchased iWay Software�s Data Migrator for SAP software and enlisted iWay Consulting to help create the legacy
interfaces.
An Escalating Trend
Cohen believes out-of-enterprise information sharing will soon become commonplace. His research shows that 20 percent of new WebFOCUS customers are currently creating applications that extend beyond enterprise walls. �Until recently, the results from something like restaurant inspections might have been stored in
databases that were difficult to make public,– he says. �Now, that data is being repurposed and posted on the Internet.–
In the end, it�s all about business value: providing customers, partners, prospects and all other out-of-enterprise users with easy access to the goods, services and information they need – when and where they need it. �Our partners embrace information because it helps them make better decisions and expand their
role in our transactions,– sums up FedEx�s Namie. �The intangible aspects of this type of collaboration are hard to measure, but the increased profits tell us that we are improving efficiency and building satisfaction with our constituents. And that leads to mutual growth among both parties.–
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David Baum is a freelance business writer based in Santa Barbara, Calif.
 
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